I remember back when my father was still alive that he’d always love to carry me along with him on his caravan trips. He insisted that I’d be able to one day pick up on some of his “mercantile skill” he always talked about. We’d travel from market to market sometimes having to stop for the rare occasion of needing rations or supplies. Other than that however the days were peaceful and left me with a mellow feeling most of the time.
On one of those trips, we headed down from Green Bay to Oshkosh with a load of machines parts that were contacted to be shipped by the Dreamers. I remember looking into the cart when father was away getting some wild fruits or something, and being amazed by what we had been transporting this whole time. From gears, to copper wires, scrap metal, and even a broken down computer, the mass of metal seemed magical to me. Taking one of the smaller gears from the pile, I ran down to the nearby lake past my father with a small smile on my face. He looked at me confusingly, but soon saw what I had been up too. I chucked the piece of metal into the lake water, remembering something similar my father once showed me of a rock skimming across the water. The gear created a small splash when it first hit instead and sank into the depths of the lake like a lead weight. I frowned as I watched the small ripple come across the top of the water and back towards me almost seeming to be asking me, “why did this have to happen to me…?”
“Lawrence! Oh god!” a female voice screamed near me. What’s going on…?
I try to open my heavy feeling eyes to investigate where the voice had come from. What awaited me is a clear ripple-free blue sky seeming peaceful and tranquil in spirit, while three blurry black figures stand around me coming in and out of my focus.
Had something happened? Why am I on the ground? I attempt to move and a large shooting pain rockets through my shoulder causing me to fall onto my back again.
“Floyd quickly shot him again! Saul! Move Lawrence out of here! Go!” voiced the female black figure.
“Um… Right!!” voice another figure seeming scared and flustered. The voices themselves were scratchy and faded in and out making it sometimes hard to understand what was being said. The figure bellows over me and I can see that it’s Saul who in front of me.
“Saul…” I moan, “What’s… What’s going on…?”
“When you attempted to fire your musket, it backfired and exploded in your face. You’re lucky…” That’s all I could hear before my hearing chimed a loud ringing sound making it impossible to hear what was being said. I could see Saul’s lips had been moving but time surely didn’t. I tried to focus harder at him with my eyes, but gave up soon due to the lack of energy my body was giving me.
A moment passes, and I can see Saul attempting to drag me from where I had originally fallen. It took a few tries, he was still young and lacked the strength needed to pull me over all at once so it came down to the 'drag and rest' technique of his more then anything. I couldn’t really do much to help even if I had wanted too. The pain in my shoulder was still throbbing and when I lazily moved my hand over to it, my hand was dotted with a crimson red splatter.
Must have been shot or something, I thought to myself while placing my hand onto my chest. My face also stung a little however due to my shoulder and the blast of the explosion I had almost not noticed it.
“Sir, quickly come in! What happened!?” a worried female voice rang. It was Dr. Sandra Jimenez. We met her just a bit ago when we stopped here in Johnson Creek for some gas and she asked if we had needed any medical supplies or assistance. Guessing right now might be the best time to ask for that assistance though.
“We got into a standoff with two large men who came here looking for us apparently. My two other comrades are outside fighting them off, while Lawrence’s musket here exploded in his face and had been shot in the shoulder.”
Dr. Jimmenez was speechless. She says nothing but soon realizes her panicked face could be seen and instead started to run around the room gathering weird medical bottles and white bandages. She quickly returns to me and kneels next to me whispering something to me but couldn’t quite catch what it was. I had sworn she said, “I’m sorry if I can’t help you all that much…” but if that was the case I’m more frightful then I had been outside with the thugs.
Soon after, footsteps could be heard walking into the room; me assuming it was Floyd and Eliza as we had left them outside to fight the armed men alone. I feel a small push on my right and I look over to see a somewhat blurry Eliza smiling at me. She took off her small burlap sack she wore and started to pull out some medical supplies herself.
God I feel useless…
My eyesight drifts and I fall out of consciousness. My mind melted to a black hue with me being only able to conjure up one last thought.
On one of those trips, we headed down from Green Bay to Oshkosh with a load of machines parts that were contacted to be shipped by the Dreamers. I remember looking into the cart when father was away getting some wild fruits or something, and being amazed by what we had been transporting this whole time. From gears, to copper wires, scrap metal, and even a broken down computer, the mass of metal seemed magical to me. Taking one of the smaller gears from the pile, I ran down to the nearby lake past my father with a small smile on my face. He looked at me confusingly, but soon saw what I had been up too. I chucked the piece of metal into the lake water, remembering something similar my father once showed me of a rock skimming across the water. The gear created a small splash when it first hit instead and sank into the depths of the lake like a lead weight. I frowned as I watched the small ripple come across the top of the water and back towards me almost seeming to be asking me, “why did this have to happen to me…?”
“Lawrence! Oh god!” a female voice screamed near me. What’s going on…?
I try to open my heavy feeling eyes to investigate where the voice had come from. What awaited me is a clear ripple-free blue sky seeming peaceful and tranquil in spirit, while three blurry black figures stand around me coming in and out of my focus.
Had something happened? Why am I on the ground? I attempt to move and a large shooting pain rockets through my shoulder causing me to fall onto my back again.
“Floyd quickly shot him again! Saul! Move Lawrence out of here! Go!” voiced the female black figure.
“Um… Right!!” voice another figure seeming scared and flustered. The voices themselves were scratchy and faded in and out making it sometimes hard to understand what was being said. The figure bellows over me and I can see that it’s Saul who in front of me.
“Saul…” I moan, “What’s… What’s going on…?”
“When you attempted to fire your musket, it backfired and exploded in your face. You’re lucky…” That’s all I could hear before my hearing chimed a loud ringing sound making it impossible to hear what was being said. I could see Saul’s lips had been moving but time surely didn’t. I tried to focus harder at him with my eyes, but gave up soon due to the lack of energy my body was giving me.
A moment passes, and I can see Saul attempting to drag me from where I had originally fallen. It took a few tries, he was still young and lacked the strength needed to pull me over all at once so it came down to the 'drag and rest' technique of his more then anything. I couldn’t really do much to help even if I had wanted too. The pain in my shoulder was still throbbing and when I lazily moved my hand over to it, my hand was dotted with a crimson red splatter.
Must have been shot or something, I thought to myself while placing my hand onto my chest. My face also stung a little however due to my shoulder and the blast of the explosion I had almost not noticed it.
“Sir, quickly come in! What happened!?” a worried female voice rang. It was Dr. Sandra Jimenez. We met her just a bit ago when we stopped here in Johnson Creek for some gas and she asked if we had needed any medical supplies or assistance. Guessing right now might be the best time to ask for that assistance though.
“We got into a standoff with two large men who came here looking for us apparently. My two other comrades are outside fighting them off, while Lawrence’s musket here exploded in his face and had been shot in the shoulder.”
Dr. Jimmenez was speechless. She says nothing but soon realizes her panicked face could be seen and instead started to run around the room gathering weird medical bottles and white bandages. She quickly returns to me and kneels next to me whispering something to me but couldn’t quite catch what it was. I had sworn she said, “I’m sorry if I can’t help you all that much…” but if that was the case I’m more frightful then I had been outside with the thugs.
Soon after, footsteps could be heard walking into the room; me assuming it was Floyd and Eliza as we had left them outside to fight the armed men alone. I feel a small push on my right and I look over to see a somewhat blurry Eliza smiling at me. She took off her small burlap sack she wore and started to pull out some medical supplies herself.
God I feel useless…
My eyesight drifts and I fall out of consciousness. My mind melted to a black hue with me being only able to conjure up one last thought.
“Why did this have to happen to me…?”